Shipwrecked

A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade

By Jonathan W. White

Historian Jonathan W. White tells the riveting story of Appleton Oaksmith, a swashbuckling sea captain whose life intersected with some of the most important moments, movements, and individuals of the mid-19th century, from the California Gold Rush, filibustering schemes in Nicaragua, Cuban liberation, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. The book depicts the extraordinary lengths the Lincoln Administration went to destroy the illegal trans-Atlantic slave trade. Using Oaksmith’s case as a lens, White takes readers into the murky underworld of New York City, where federal marshals plied the docks in lower Manhattan in search of evidence of slave trading. Once they suspected Oaksmith, federal authorities had him arrested and convicted, but in 1862 he escaped from jail and became a Confederate blockade-runner in Havana. The Lincoln Administration tried to have him kidnapped in violation of international law, but the attempt was foiled. Always claiming innocence, Oaksmith spent the next decade in exile until he received a presidential pardon from U.S. Grant, at which point he moved to North Carolina and became an anti-Klan politician.

Through a remarkable, fast-paced story, this book will give readers a new perspective on slavery and shifting political alliances during the turbulent Civil War Era.

Jonathan W. White is the author of many books including, most recently, A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House (2022). His numerous articles, essays, and reviews on Lincoln and the Civil War Era have appeared in Smithsonian, Time, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. He teaches history at Christopher Newport University and resides in Newport News, Virginia.

The story of Appleton Oaksmithpens a new perspective on slavery and the US during the Civil War.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

October 2023

328 pages

28 illustrations

Hardback with dust jacket

978 1 5381 7501 9 eBook

978 1 5381 7502 6

History • Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)

1789

The Founders Create America

By Thomas B. Allen

“No future session of Congress will ever have so arduous and weighty a charge on their hands,” the New York Gazette observed in summer 1789. “No examples to imitate, and no striking historical facts on which to ground their decisions—All is bare creation.” The constitution had been written in 1787 and ratified in 1788. But 1789 was the year the government it described—albeit only in the broadest of terms—had to be brought into being.

1789: The Founders Create America draws on hundreds of sources to paint a vivid portrait of the new nation, setting out to show the world at large that a new—and very American—form of government was calling itself into being. Veteran journalist Thomas B. Allen brings decades of experience and a gifted storyteller’s eye to the longhidden history of how George Washington and the other Founders set the Federal government into motion.

Thomas B. Allen (1929-2018) was the author of numerous history books and a frequent contributor to Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, Military History Quarterly, Military History, Naval History, the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings, and other publications. He resided in Bethesda, Maryland.

The story of how the first US government was brought into being.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

October 2023

400 pages

Hardback with dust jacket

978 1 5381 8309 0 eBook

978 1 5381 8310 6

History • United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)

The Bulldog Detective

William J. Flynn and America’s First War against the Mafia, Spies, and Terrorists

By Jeffrey D. Simon

Fascinating, exciting, and at times tragic true crime.

This is the first book to tell the story of William J. Flynn, the first government official to bring down the powerful Mafia, uncover a sophisticated German spy ring in the United States, and launch a formal war on terrorism. As the Director of the Bureau of Investigation, the forerunner to the FBI, Flynn would become one of the most respected and effective law enforcement officials in American history.

Jeffrey D. Simon is an internationally renowned author, lecturer, and consultant on terrorism and political violence. He is president of Political Risk Assessment Company, Inc., and a visiting lecturer in the Department of Political Science at UCLA.

The Whites of Their Eyes

The Life of Revolutionary War Hero Israel

Putnam from Rogers’ Rangers to Bunker Hill

By Michael E. Shay

A little-known story from the Revolutionary War.

The Whites of Their Eyes recounts the life and times of Israel Putnam, a larger-than-life general, a gregarious tavern keeper and farmer, who was a folk hero in Connecticut and the probable source of legendary words during the Revolutionary War— “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes” —and whose exploits make him one of the most interesting officers in American military history.

Michael Shay practiced law in Connecticut for thirty years before serving as a Superior Court Judge for fifteen years. He lives in Wilton, Connecticut.

Prometheus

March 2024 • 272 pages • 33 illustrations

Hardback 978 1 6338 8865 4 eBook 978 1 6338 8866 1

History • United States / 20th Century

Stackpole Books

December 2023 • 320 pages • 18 illustrations

Hardback with dust jacket 978 0 8117 7351 5 eBook 978 0 8117 7352 2

History • United States / Revolutionary Period (17751800)

Frontier Teachers

Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West, Second Edition

By Chris Enss

Courageous women who brought formal education to the Wild West.

Between 1847 and 1858, more than 600 women teachers travelled across the untamed frontier to provide youngsters with an education, and the numbers grew rapidly in the decades to come, as women took advantage of one of the few career opportunities for respectable work for ladies of the era. Enduring hardship, the dozen women whose stories are movingly told in the pages of Frontier Teachers demonstrated the utmost dedication and sacrifice necessary to bring formal education to the Wild West.

Chris Enss is an award-winning screenwriter who has written for television, short subject films, live performances, and for the movies.

TwoDot

October 2023 • 200 pages • 21 illustrations

Trade paperback 978 1 4930 6477 9 eBook 978 1 4930 6478 6

History • United States / State & Local / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)

The Caretakers

War Graves Gardeners and the Secret Battle to Rescue Allied Airmen in World War II

By Caitlin Galante DeAngelis

The incredible story of British cemetery gardners in France and their role in WWII.

The Caretakers tells the powerful story of the British cemetery gardeners who remained in France during the Nazi invasion of WWII, aiding the French Resistance and providing safe haven for downed American airmen and safe passage for refugees.

With meticulous archive research, personal interviews of the families of British gardeners and American airmen and never-before-published journals and papers of Resistance members, author Caitlin Galante DeAngelis reveals untold stories of human courage, resistance, and survival.

Caitlin Galante DeAngelis is an internationally renowned expert on cemeteries. She earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University with a dissertation on the political histories of cemeteries in Britain and America.

Prometheus

February 2024 • 256 pages

Hardback 978 1 6338 8899 9 eBook 978 1 6338 8900 2

History • Wars & Conflicts / World War II

Inside the French Foreign Legion Adventures with the World’s Most Famous Fighting Force

By N. J. Valldejuli

Among the world’s elite fighting units, the French Foreign Legion remains one of the most unique and most mysterious. Open to volunteers from around the world, the Legion boasts an illustrious and exciting military history stretching from Europe to Africa and Latin America, from Vietnam and Algeria to Afghanistan; features a notoriously difficult selection and training process, accepting approximately two percent of applicants; and has traditionally required soldiers to enlist under assumed names. Soldiers swear allegiance not to France, but to the Legion, which has been romanticized in literature, song, and action movies as a place for men to prove their mettle or start their lives over.

With this book, former legionnaire N. J. Valldejuli lifts the veil on the French Foreign Legion, who the legionnaires are, what they do, where they serve, why they joined, and why they’re willing to die for France, which for most is a foreign country. Stories move from Algeria in the 1960s and the Balkans in the 1990s to more recent French operations in Afghanistan and former colonies in Africa. Drawing on his own experiences as well as those of members from various countries over the past fifty years (including several girlfriends of soldiers), his stories highlight the Legion’s intense camaraderie and its members’ fierce loyalty to this unique unit, in addition to the extreme mental and physical demands made of them, and the sacrifices of their families back home.

N. J. Valldejuli was born in England and raised in New York state. Inspired by stories of the unit’s exploits, he joined the French Foreign Legion in 1986, serving until his honorable medical discharge in 1988. A graduate of Kenyon College in Ohio and Lund University in Sweden, Valldejuli has taught English and history around the world. He lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

A colourful blend of first-hand experience and interviews that gives an insider’s perspective on what it means—and what it takes— to be a legionnaire.

Stackpole Books

January 2024

336 pages

14 illustrations

Hardback with dust jacket

978 0 8117 7240 2 eBook

978 0 8117 7241 9

History • Military / General

Ronin

Marine Snipers at War

By Mike Tucker

A boots-on-the-ground perspective on American policy in action in Iraq.

In this raw and provocative book, readers wear desert camouflage, climb to rooftops, and get behind the rifle with a platoon of elite Marine snipers and scouts in Iraq. Author Mike Tucker embedded with the unit for its entire combat tour in 2005–06 to tell this exclusive from-the-frontlines story. Ronin captures true-grit Marines at war as they reconnoitre Iraqi villages, track terrorist targets, grapple with unrealistic rules of engagement, and get the kill. It also contains the only first-hand accounts of such previously unreported actions as an Al Qaeda attack on a police station and the “winter of the sniper” when terrorist gunmen plagued Coalition forces in Fallujah.

Mike Tucker is a Marine infantry veteran who has reported on guerrilla warfare and terrorism from hot spots around the globe, including Thailand, Burma, Spain, and Iraq.

Stackpole Books

November 2023 • 256 pages • 27 illustrations

Trade paperback 978 0 8117 7386 7

History • Military / Iraq War (2003-2011)

Spy For No Country

The Story of Ted Hall, the Teenage Atomic Spy Who May Have Saved the World

By Dave Lindorff

The story of the teenage scientist who saved the world by spying for the Soviets.

At 18, Theodore Hall was not only the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project. He was was also the youngest spy taken on by the Soviet Union in search of secrets to the atomic bomb. Neither a Communist nor a Soviet sympathizer, Hall worked to ensure that America did not monopolize the science behind the atomic bomb, which he felt may have apocalyptic consequences. Instead, by providing the Soviets with the secrets of the bomb, and thereby initiating “mutual assured destruction,” Hall may have saved the world. Featuring in-depth research from recently declassified FBI documents, first-hand journals, and personal interviews.

Dave Lindorff is a veteran investigative journalist who has won several major journalism awards and was a two-time Fulbright Professor of Journalism.

Prometheus

February 2024 • 296 pages • 12 illustrations

Hardback 978 1 6338 8895 1 eBook 978 1 6338 8896 8

History • Military / Intelligence & Espionage

Desert Storm Marines

A Marine Tank Company at War in the Gulf

By Jeff Dacus

An exciting narrative account of a group of Marine reservists during 1991’s Operation Desert Storm.

In the Gulf War, thousands of reservists are called up for the first time since the Korean War. During their deployment they face enemy tanks, mines, and artillery as well as their own bureaucracy, petty jealousies, and one officer that fails to live up to his oath. Their superior officers make debatable decisions, and they are often unsupported. In the end, they find the support they need, the leadership they lack, and a comradeship comparable to historic units like the Band of Brothers.

Jeff Dacus is a retired Master Sergeant of Marines who experienced tank combat in Operation Desert Storm. He is also a retired schoolteacher who taught U.S. history for 35 years and as an adjunct professor at the University of Portland, Oregon. He resides in Vancouver, Washington.

Lyons Press

November 2023 • 272 pages • 42 illustrations

Hardback with dust jacket 978 1 4930 7567 6 eBook 978 1 4930 7568 3

History • Military / Persian Gulf War (1991)

Air Apaches

The True Story of the 345th Bomb Group and Its Low, Fast, and Deadly Missions in World War II

By Jay A. Stout

The remarkable story of an aerial combat unit in the South Pacific in World War II.

Air Apaches reconstructs the war of the 345th Bomb Group in the South Pacific in painstaking detail, capturing what it was like to be one of the young men flying low-level bombing and strafing missions and facing such challenges as kamikaze attacks and, if a pilot was shot down, primitive jungle conditions and a sword-brandishing enemy who did not treat downed airmen by the letter of the Geneva Convention.

Jay A. Stout is a retired Marine Corps fighter pilot with more than 4,500 flight hours and 37 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm. He has appeared as an aviation and military expert on various TV and radio news programs, including Fox News and NPR. He lives in San Diego, California.

Stackpole Books

October 2023 • 432 pages • 103 illustrations

Trade paperback 978 0 8117 7268 6 eBook 978 0 8117 6809 2

History • Military / World War II